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Making it in America: High school completion by immigrant and native youth

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Demography

Abstract

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we find that first-generation youth of Hispanic, Asian, and African heritage obtain more education than their parents, but the second generation and third or higher generations lose ground. Differences in dropout rates by race-ethnicity and immigrant generation are driven by differences in human, cultural, and social capital. Low levels of family human capital, school social capital, and community social capital place the children of immigrants at risk of dropping out. However, cultural capital and immigrant optimism buffer first-generation Hispanic youth and the children of Asian immigrants from the risk of dropping out of high school. While human and social capital resources improve with immigrant generation, cultural capital diminishes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Policy and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 123 W. Franklin St., CB#8120, 27510, Chapel Hill, NC

    Krista M. Perreira

  2. Department of Sociology and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

    Kathleen Mullan Harris & Dohoon Lee

Authors
  1. Krista M. Perreira
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  2. Kathleen Mullan Harris
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Correspondence to Krista M. Perreira.

Additional information

We would like to thank the Russell Sage Foundation for their financial support for this research. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by Grant P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance on the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (http://www. cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth).

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Perreira, K.M., Harris, K.M. & Lee, D. Making it in America: High school completion by immigrant and native youth. Demography 43, 511–536 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2006.0026

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